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So far, the Covenant have proved highly intelligent in their entry points, having burnt holes through hanger bay windows or used the empty UNSC escape pod docking rings to board a vessel. The boarding craft is a reusable vessel and is able to leave the UNSC ship and return to a nearby cruiser should the need to retreat occur.

A group of Covenant soldiers prepare to board the Pillar of Autumn in Halo: Combat Evolved.

So far two variations of the Covenant Boarding Craft have been seen. They are first encountered in Halo: Combat Evolved, used by the Covenant to board the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. These craft were only viewed partially and internally with only the boarding tube being accessible and the cockpit being off-limits behind a locked door. These vessels usually carried a compliment of up to 8-10 Covenant warriors, usually Unggoy and Sangheili.

The second, much larger, type of boarding craft were responsible for the destruction of the ODPs of the Athens and Malta stations. These possessed the large bodied structure with an attached boarding tube. The entrance/exit to the boarding tube was covered with an impenetrable shield that only allowed their considerable complement of Covenant soldiers out. The boarding tube seemed to function on a similar basis to the gravity-bridges found in the Covenant holy city High Charity. The tube, once deployed, had a superheated rim to melt glass instead of shattering it, therefore cooling down so air cannot escape.